Bringing the bombast, drama and light show of a larger venue to Lost Lake, EMA and opening act Mas Ysa pushed enough air to test the sound system of most smaller rooms to its limits. Mas Ysa even commented that he thought he was overloading the monitor, but it didn’t…
Bob Marley wasn’t a particularly successful commercial artist during his lifetime. This week’s Backbeat feature explores how he became a household name around the world with the help of one greatest-hits compilation…
When Gregory Alan Isakov and Nathaniel Rateliff played The Aggie in Ft. Collins earlier this year, the audience was silent. The only time the crowd made a peep during the music was when a diabetic girl fainted in the audience. It was weird. It was beautiful. It may have been…
When Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds went into “Stagger Lee” from the 1996 album Murder Ballads, it was an iconic moment of an evening of music in which the band took the tradition of American folk mythology and breathed into it a larger-than-life electricity. Cave brought raging emotional intensity…
The twentieth annual Westword Music Showcase brought over 11,000 people to the Golden Triangle to watch more than 150 bands of every possible variety. Our writers and photographers saw excellent lunacy and affecting songs — the bands and artists of Denver have built a music scene that contains the best…
As the town of Telluride changes hands from tourists back to locals, and “festivarians” everywhere and finally cut off the last vestiges of Festivaria, including their wristbands, we look back at one of Colorado’s most popular music festivals. The list of the best things about the Telluride Bluegrass Festival is…
After months of planning and lead-up, the twentieth Westword Music Showcase arrived promptly at noon on Saturday. I started my day watching SF1 both tap dance and absolutely nail down a cover of “Bombs Over Baghdad,” and the next ten hours passed in a blur of sweaty singers and silly…
We’ve talked plenty about the artists who played at this year’s Westword Music Showcase. But, as many of them noted, there isn’t much worthwhile about a music scene without fans. So videographer Bailey Geoghan talked to attendees at this year’s Showcase. She collected advice from them on summer festival fashion…
The Westword Music Showcase brought several thousand fans to see over 150 bands in the Golden Triangle over the weekend. You can find more coverage of the festivities elsewhere on Backbeat, but we wanted to give the bands a moment to weigh in. Earlier, we asked several artists playing the…
Although Arish Ahmad “King” Khan (of King Khan and the Shrines fame) lives in Berlin — which isn’t too far from Amsterdam — he says it’s not common for the crew he runs around with to travel to the Netherlands for pot. But he was beyond thrilled to purchase marijuana…
A few spectacularly heavy hitters come to Colorado this week — both Nick Cave and Merle Haggard are in town. Sharon Van Etten, playing Tuesday at the Bluebird, has plenty to show for her own relatively short career. You can read our extensive interview with her elsewhere on Backbeat this…
The Clark County Coroner is investigating the death of a 24-year-old who collapsed outside Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas Saturday morning. An autopsy was being conducted this weekend, but results aren’t yet available to the media, an official at the coroner’s office told us. If drug use is suspected,…
Editor: We’re sitting here among the folded banners and deflated massive cartoon rum bottles after another Westword Music Showcase. You can relive it with a fairly comprehensive set of photos, and we’ll have some more thoughts from the writers of Backbeat in the coming days. For now, here are some…
We are live from the twentieth Westword Music Showcase. Friends, I can now give you the exclusive news that there are tiny ferns on every table in the VIP section. There are also many bands. More than 150 bands, actually, playing seventeen stages in the Golden Triangle. Stop me if…
Update: More details have emerged about last night’s shooting outside Red Rocks, and it appears the shooter was targeting Schoolboy Q after his performance opening for Nas and Flying Lotus. Schoolboy Q had just gotten into a white SUV near the south entrance of the actual amphitheater when someone who…
Editor’s note: There was a shooting after last night’s concert at Red Rocks. Early reports suggest Schoolboy Q was targeted on his way out of the venue. Three people were injured, none seriously. There was also a concert, though, and by all accounts it was a good one. We’ll have…
The Westword Music Showcase is finally here. Tomorrow right here in the Golden Triangle neighborhood, we’ll host over 150 of Denver’s best bands on 16 stages. And headliners Diplo and 2 Chainz will take to an outdoor set-up right in the heart of the festivities. There are other worthwhile shows…
The twentieth annual Westword Music Showcase is tomorrow. There are over 150 bands on the bill, which is a lot. Too many to see in a day. We’ve come up with a few ways of helping you make your decisions. But just in case you need a few more, we…
Your new favorite band is from Denver — you just have to find it! No small task in a city with thousands of artists and hundreds of venues, we know — but you can start this weekend at the Westword Music Showcase. More than 140 of our favorite local artists…
Wait, when is this Westword Music Showcase thing? This Saturday, June 21. How much daylight will there be? The most daylight. Happy solstice, everyone! When should I show up? Gates open at 11:30 and bands start at noon. There’s a schedule of the sixteen stages featuring Denver bands below (subject…
It’s a cherished music-festival tradition: You study the schedule, pick the bands you want to see, plot your day and ultimately throw the whole thing out the window. Still, with more than 140 bands playing this year’s Westword Music Showcase, you’ll have to at least try to make some decisions…
One of the reasons Denver is such a unique place for music is the number (and quality) of live music venues here. In light of the Westword Music Showcase taking place this Saturday, June 21, we asked a number of local artists what their favorite venues are and tracked down…
